Review: <cite>Too Human</cite> More Potential Than Payoff

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Review: <cite>Too Human</cite> More Potential Than Payoff

I like Too Human.

I don't love it. There isn't a single facet of this Xbox 360 action role-playing game that couldn't be significantly improved upon: The story premise is clever, but it doesn't go anywhere. The combination of futuristic gunplay and RPG character-building is interesting, but not as satisfying as it should be. And when it all comes to a crashing halt and ends long before its time, it's disappointing – but the fact that I was disappointed means I had to have been enjoying myself.

(Watch Wired.com's video review of Too Human, at right.)

It's difficult to separate* Too Human* the videogame from the years of controversy surrounding it. Too Human shipped out last Tuesday after years of delays and hype from its developer Silicon Knights; for better or worse, it's become a potent example of what can happen in the videogame business when a product is promoted excessively before its release date. When a downloadable demo was released in July, it set a first-week record for an action game demo on Xbox 360, showing that fans, at long last, just wanted to find out for themselves.

In the end,* Too Human* turns out to be a mixed bag – not "terrible," as the game's first demo version was infamously branded in an EGM preview from 2006, but also far from a hater-owning home run.

So what is this game around which all of this insanity has piled up? Too Human recasts the pantheon of Norse gods as a cybernetics corporation tasked with saving all mankind by enhancing themselves with powerful aftermarket body parts. Some characters have merely minor upgrades, but some – like Hel, the ruler of the underworld and her rogue god father Loki – look less human and more robotic.

The gameplay is a blend of action and role-playing. Dropped into four different lengthy levels filled with robot version of elves, orcs, and trolls, you, as Norse hero Baldur, must slice and dice your way through them. Combat is controlled not by pressing buttons but by moving the right joystick towards enemies; Baldur will dramatically slide across the floor towards the closest enemy you're pointing at. You'll also always have a ranged weapon equipped, which you can fire from a distance.

There are five different character classes, each with his own strengths and weaknesses. The first time through, I played as a Berserker, who excels at the right-stick melee attacks, but you might pick a more well-rounded player at first. Early in the game, you'll be asked if you want to pump Baldur up with cybernetics. If you do, you'll do more damage; if not, you'll have to rely on building up attack combos by sliding back and forth between enemies.

When Too Human works, it's fun. I love launching an enemy into the air by double-tapping the stick, then leaping up after him and doing a "fierce attack" by hitting both joysticks at once while he's immobile. It is, at these times, a pretty game: While the characters and animation don't look very good in the cinema scenes (not human enough, I might say), the monsters and level designs are pleasing, and battles are easy to follow – at least when you zoom the camera way out. The soundtrack is excellent.

But this is when Too Human is working. When things slow down, get fiddly, and get frustrating is when you're so overwhelmed by the enemies that you just keep getting blown to Valhalla over and over. You can get resurrected back into the battle an infinite number of times with very little penalty, but things can still become boring and repetitive.

Adding to this is the fact that Too Human overloads you with new weapons, armor, and assorted gewgaws at every step. You constantly have to jump into the menu to equip new things, and the menu is noticeably sluggish and slightly awkward to navigate. These would not be major issues but for the sheer amount of time that you have to spend in there fiddling with settings.

You can play Too Human cooperatively with an online friend, which I did briefly. It's significantly more fun to have someone else chatting and strategizing along with you. But you'll miss out on the storyline, as none of the cinematic scenes appear in the multiplayer game.

I was disappointed to find this out, since Too Human's story was the thing that had me the most intrigued. On the art-versus-entertainment scale, the plot is more Da Vinci Code than Name of the Rose, more light summer reading than deep introspective social commentary. Tom Chick, reviewing the game for Variety, listed its ten most ridiculous lines of dialogue.

For my part, I found that Silicon Knights was creating an intriguing mystery, because it's clear that the war between Loki and the Aesir isn't nearly as cut-and-dry a conflict as everyone makes it out to be. But Silicon Knights never pulls back the curtain. I felt more like it had pulled the rug out from underneath me, bringing Too Human to a cliffhanger ending after around ten hours and four levels, without resolving much of anything.

Silicon Knights points out that Too Human has significantly more cinematic sequences than the company's previous game Eternal Darkness. While this may be true,* Too Human* doesn't have more story than Eternal Darkness. That game's levels blended puzzles, monster battles, and story into a cohesive experience; as you explored the game, you'd constantly come across things, people, and documents in the environment that expanded on and enriched the world that the designers had built. Too Human's structure doesn't allow for this, since the levels are almost entirely based on slamming the right stick and hitting enemies.

In short, I was left wanting to know more. The fact that you can start a new campaign with your character and continue to level him up didn't really entice me back into *Too Human *– I want more story. To that end, I'm looking forward to the promised release of Too Human 2. Actually, Silicon Knights says that this will be a trilogy. My unsolicited advice would be to compress the next two games into one value-packed sequel, as Too Human is more potential than delivery at this point, and this first game doesn't pack enough punch to make up for its flaws.

WIRED Enjoyable story, interesting combination of action and RPG* *

TIRED Very brief story, constant fiddling with the menu, can get boring